Education and Culture

The role of education and free media in overcoming mechanisms of social control

Every social system has mechanisms meant to guarantee its perpetuity. One of the most evident is the control of public opinion through the media. This helps create a homogeneous, industrial, commercialized culture that, far from encouraging creativity and critical thinking, instead extols only the values that sustain the status quo. The same may be argued about some educational systems, oriented more towards manufacturing workers for the machine of production than actually practicing essential pedagogy.

At Permact, we look for projects that are concerned with stimulating critical thinking and free thought. Education, culture, and the free media offer ways to rescue our capability to think for ourselves. There are a number of positive trends in these areas, including home schooling, alternative education systems (such as Waldorf, green schools, and Montesori), participatory art and music, social ecology, active research, alternative press, and free media. Moreover, some traditional schools are now integrating new teaching methods intended to arouse the conscience of the students, inspiring them to get involved in this paradigm shift we are experiencing as a society.

One of my last visits was to San Cristobal de las Casas (Chiapas) to a school in the middle of a forest, called Pequeño Sol (Little Sun). This school was founded 20 years ago by 5 families who were looking for something different for their children.

Barricada TV is a free television station that broadcasts from the recovered IMPA (Argentine Metallurgical & Plastic Industries) factory, in Buenos Aires. It is a building with four floors, an entire block.

The Montessori method is an alternative educational system that is taught throughout the world. It was started by Maria Montessori at the end of the XIX century. Buscant Llavors had the opportunity to spend time at one of these schools, the Oak Farm Montessori School, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.